WARNING: This part contains a certain turning point in the story. Some may think it as a spoiler. ^_^

Year 4392, Lua Zelpis Planet

All those years of arduous research has finally paid off. All the sacrifices of the human race resulted to this great discovery. Dubbed as the "Temple of Immortality", this millennia-old ruins that was known to be elusive to those who seek it, has finally been unearthed by a group of raiders led by the Archaeo Explore Group also known as ArchEx.

Leading the team were Violet Carlsen and Trystan Clayes, deemed as the "power couple", heirs to the richest company in Lua Zelpis. Even amidst the scandals and rumors involving their recent engagement, the current heir to the Archaeo Explore Group, Violet has arranged for a group of 15 people to explore the infamous temple.

Today is the day of the exploration and the media has been following this event since it was announced to the public. It was indeed peculiar how easy the temple was found this time by all these people when it was supposed to be elusive. Nobody seemed to question this fact though since their priority was to document the well-known temple and exploration team. All the other dangers and worries were thrown out of the window when money and popularity were being prioritized. 

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Inside the temple, it has only been a few hours since the exploration started but the team had already lost four people due to the vicious traps that were laid inconspicuously either on the ceiling, walls or floors of the temple corridors. Their deaths were swift but gruesome as if this temple relishes in the spraying of blood and flesh on its grounds.

The team is currently sitting on one of the safe spaces they luckily found. Trystan broke the tense silence as he said, "We should reach the center of the ruin where the rumored altar that grants immortality is located. We'll be there in about half an hour based on all the research we got from previous explorations."

Violet answered, "That's great news. I can't afford to lose more of my people just for this exploration. We aren't even sure if this is worth all our sacrifices. I also have to arrange compensation for the families of the fallen the soonest."

After an hour, the team finally reached a circular area. It was grand with clean marble floors and columns that are thick and several meters tall. Each column was covered with impressive carvings of the phases of the moon. It has a high ceiling with a clear glass dome. For some unexplainable reason, outside the dome, it shows the night sky when they clearly entered the ruins at daybreak. It hasn't even been 6 hours since they entered this ruin.

There was a huge stone tablet in the middle with prehistoric writings on it. The expert ancient script reader of the group was one of the four that died first. Luckily, the couple had foresight and both of them at least studied a bit of these old forms of writing before this exploration. Hopefully, the writings can be deciphered accurately through their teamwork.

The team cautiously approached the stone tablet, trying to avoid any traps that may be placed somewhere in these grounds. Luckily, there was none at this time.

Once they were in front of the tablet, the ground lit up starting from where the tablet is located up to the walls surrounding the altar room. When the light dissipated, they noticed that there was a huge scorched circle on the ground which is composed of intricate symbols and writings similar to the ones on the huge stone tablet. It would have been majestic if only the writings were not a combination of eerie colors such as black, dark gray and blood red.

It took the couple only an hour to decipher the contents of the tablet but it was full of terms and symbolism of things that do not exist in the present world. Though they were able to fully decipher it, without proper references and research, the sentences formed by the writings were incoherent. What they noticed though was the repeated mentions of the words like "blood", "rebirth", "thirst", "riches", "sacrifice" and "immortality". Due to how incoherent the writings were, the team was confused on how to proceed.

Trystan walked away silently while Violet was still standing in front of the stone tablet, her full focus is on reading it intently. She was reading it over repeatedly as if she would get a sudden epiphany on what the writings in the tablet meant. As for Trystan, he looked down and started to rummage for something in his bag. Once he found it, he stealthily approached Violet from behind.

Violet was too preoccupied to notice the Trystan's approach and before she could react, she felt a piercing pain from her back. When she looked down, she saw the tip of a blade protruding from her abdomen. She forcefully lifted her head and slammed the back of it to the face of whoever was behind her. The man was caught off guard and fell to the ground with a broken and bleeding nose.

Violet turned around and leaned on the stone tablet for support, her blood smearing all over it. She looked back and saw her own fiancè holding his broken and bleeding nose while looking at her viciously, the bloodied knife fell right in front of him. Instead of anger, she smiled calmly at him.

She spoke one of the excerpts from the stone tablet that was the least incoherent sentence of all that was written in there, "The moonlight that came from the depths will weigh the greed of hearts of all that stand before me. Be careful, those who breed evil in their beings since this place will cloud your thoughts and make you take action of the most evil of desires whether it be to plunder, betray or kill."

She paused while trying to calm her breathing so as not to bleed out too quickly and continued, "You should be the greediest and the most evil one out of everyone in the group, my dear fiancé. You fit the bill since you want to plunder, betray and kill me all at the same time. The life of a boy toy must be really hard and you can't wait to be free from your sugar mommy, huh? Was it one of the board of directors? It should be Madam Latis, then."

Trystan who was previously squirming in pain on the ground stiffened and looked at Violet in surprise. He spoke with a cold and merciless tone, "You knew all along that I was suffering?! You could have helped me get rid of that lecherous woman! You chose not to be intimate with me since you thought I was dirty, right? Who betrayed who first?"

Violet answered, "It's weird how you try to blame me for something you did before you met me. Why do I feel like you targeted me since I was a younger, kinder and a richer sugar mommy? You lied about your origins from the start and I just had to find out about it through a background investigation I did last month after we got engaged."

There was a hint of clarity and guilt in Trystan's eyes when he realized that Violet has always treated him fairly. Even if she knew about the truth for a month, her treatment towards him never changed and she did not cancel their engagement.

As he was about to apologize and approach her, the ground violently shook as a row of stone slabs started to rise up from the ground. It was starting to block the exits on the sides of the circular altar. Without second thoughts or even looking back at the injured Violet, Trystan ran out of the encirclement of the stone slabs leaving his bleeding fiancée in the middle of the altar, his goal was just to save his own life. All the other staff did not notice that Violet got left behind as everybody ran for their own lives.

Violet slid down the stone tablet and sat on the ground weakly. She was dazed due to the shock of the betrayal but she refused to cry. Her shock turned to anger instead. Her wound was painful but her heart hurt more.

She then thought to herself, "I may have been in love with you for many years but I still have my brain in the right place. If I do not come back alive today, I made sure that everything I worked hard for will not go to you, Trystan or any of those heartless old vultures."

Suddenly, a cold and eerie female voice spoke from the confines of the altar, "I accept your bountiful sacrifice of blood. I have been observing you and your group since you entered my burial ground. I also have sensed a strong familiarity from you for some reason. You seem to be dying my benefactor and I want to help you out. I can grant you immortality, exempting you from the gradual draining of the life force of this world and saving you from your current quagmire. Shall you accept my gift, I will give you freedom to choose people whom you want to share this eternity with. I will include a sanctuary you can call your own to protect those you hold dear. Do you accept my reward to you for ending my imprisonment?"

As Violet heard the offer from the unknown being, she also felt the same familiarity. She then thought that since she had nothing to lose and accepting it means she doesn't have to die, why not take a chance.

She looked towards the ceiling that was showing the beautiful moon and the starry night sky and replied, "As long as I can keep what's mine and punish those who betrayed me, I will accept this deal."

The voice answered, "Great! I will transfer everything I have built so far to you. With the things included in my inheritance, you are free to do anything you want in this world, whether good or evil, and get away with it. I wish you luck on building a new family, your own coven, young progenitor and new vampire queen." Violet's eyes widened when she heard the words "vampire" and "coven" but before she could take back her answer, her vision darkened and she passed out.